Lion Cake Recipe

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5 from 9 votes

Rich chocolate mudcake with chocolate buttercream, covered in Lion Cake fondant, this celebration cake has some ROAR!!

Prep Time2

Cook Time1

Total Time3

Course: Birthday, Celebration, Dessert, Special Event

Cuisine: Cake, Dessert, Special Occasion, Treat

Keyword: animal cake, birthday cake, jungle cake, lion cake

Servings:

Calories: 320kcal

Author: Adrianne

Ingredients

Lion Cake Recipe

2 x mudcake packet mixes Eggs, milk and butter as per the instructions
1.5kg x ready rolled fondant
1 x yellow dye
1 x brown dye
1 x pink dye
8 x thin round noodles
2 x milk chocolate melts
¼ cup cocoa powder

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe ( 1 x batch for centre layer, 1 x batch to cover cake and sides)

200 grams butter at room temperature
2 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoon almond milk
¼ cup cocoa powder

Instructions

Make your mudcake according to the recipe instructions on the packet
After baking, ensure it is cool, before slicing cake in half
Make your chocolate buttercream
Cut the cooled cake in half and spread a layer of buttercream between the two halves. Place cake back together again
Cover entire cake as well as sides with chocolate buttercream and place in refrigerator
Place fondant on kitchen bench and begin to knead. Continue until the fondant is soft and pliable (it will take some time)
Break the fondant into smaller amounts for the various colours (ie yellow, brown, pink and white)
Add yellow food colouring to the fondant using a tooth pick to disperse. Use disposable gloves to work the colour into the fondant and repeat until you have the colours for each part. (ie yellow for cake, ears, cheeks and tail, pink for tongue, brown for mane and end of tail, white for eyes.
Roll yellow fondant out on a cutting mat using a rolling pin. Place along side frosted cake. Gently pick up fondant sheet and lay over cake. Press down on top and sides. Use a knife to cut off the excess buttercream (use for tail, cheeks etc)
Use cutting tools (eg cookie cutters) to make the various shapes for the animal parts. You will need circles for the cheeks, eyes and a brown blob for the nose. Use a chopstick to make nostrils.
Roll brown fondant out and score it to create long strips. Use this to cut smaller portions to roll for the mane. Use either vegetable shortening (copha) or water to stick fondant pieces to cake
Roll tail in a few pieces, push down around the circumference of the cake. Use some brown fondant for the end of the tail.
Use the chocolate drops for the centre of the lion's eyes
Repeat until all animal parts are stuck on the cake and the mane covers the circumference edge of your cake
Add noodles for whiskers by sliding them into either cheek

Video

Notes

I made quite a large cake as my friend was expecting 30 plus guests. I therefore chose to make a 30cm cake. If you have less guests, I would recommend using a smaller cake tin and possibly making 2 cakes, one layered on top of the other.
A friend from work showed me a Facebook group for 'mud cake hacks'. You could definitely buy the mud cake from the bakery section of the store and decorate that if you wish. You wouldn't need buttercream on the top of the cake if it comes already iced.
To stick the fondant pieces onto the cake, you can use buttercream (not if you live in a very hot climate and your party is outdoors), tylose left overnight to become a glue, edible glue, water or vegetable shortening. My preference is a combination of the vegetable shortening with water as well (alternate between the 2).
If your fondant becomes dry, rub some vegetable shortening on your hands. This will make it soft again.
Store any leftover fondant in an air tight container
My preference for the dye for the fondant is liquid get from the cake shop (for specific colours). Gel makes the fondant too wet, so avoid using that if you can.
You can use a little icing sugar on the bench whilst working with the fondant
I chose to use cocoa to dye the fondant brown as I felt that was a better option that a lot of food colouring when there is already a high sugar amount in the cake and fondant itself. It too, will need to be kneaded into the fondant (use gloves, it can get a bit messy)
Please note the nutritional information was hard to calculate for this recipe due to so many unique ingredients. Have smaller portions of the cake if you are worried about your daily calorie intake.

Nutrition